The Evidence Collective elects Dr. Raven Baxter as a member
Members of The Evidence Collective, a network of scientists, clinicians and communicators, elected Dr. Raven Baxter to the group on March 4, 2026.
Buffalo State hires alumna Raven Baxter to advise its first-year science majors
A SUNY campus since 1948, Buffalo State has offered bachelor's degrees in biology, chemistry and physics since 1963 and now enrolls about 6,100 students
Baxter in a 2020 SUNY Buffalo State alumni profile that describes her work as an adviser to science freshmen. Photo: SUNY Buffalo State
Raven Baxter returned to her alma mater, SUNY Buffalo State, in August 2017 as a full-time academic adviser in the Biology Department. According to a Buffalo State alumni profile, she advised all freshmen in biology, physics, chemistry, forensic chemistry and earth science.
She also taught biology, and she held the job until September 2019. She started the same month Buffalo State awarded her M.A. in biological sciences.
Her first semester was also the first semester of New York's Excelsior Scholarship. Starting in fall 2017, SUNY and CUNY undergraduates from families earning up to $100,000 could attend tuition-free, CNN Money reported. To keep the award, students had to take 30 credits a year.
The first year also shapes who stays in science. A 2013 federal study found that 48 percent of bachelor's students who entered STEM fields between 2003 and 2009 had left them by spring 2009. Lighter STEM course loads and less challenging math in the first year were linked to leaving.
Baxter has described what she told those freshmen. "I used to advise freshmen at Buffalo State University, and they would always strive for perfectionism," she said on the Productivity Alchemy podcast in 2023. "You're not going to be perfect. You know, I'm going to help guide you along the way, but you're going to fail and that's okay."
"With every failure, you're going to learn exactly how to move forward, right? Cause you can only go forward from failure," she said.
"My biggest piece of advice for my students is always, Be your own biggest advocate and push yourself to do things that challenge you," she told Buffalo State for its alumni profile.
Baxter during her March 2021 lecture for RTI International. Image: RTI International video
In a 2021 lecture for RTI International, she looked back on the job. "I worked as an academic advisor for STEM freshmen at Buffalo State College, and that was one of the greatest roles I've ever had," she said. "I love community building."
Buffalo State opened in 1871 as the Buffalo Normal School, with 86 students, to train teachers for the city's schools. It joined SUNY in 1948, and in 1963 the state authorized it to grant bachelor of arts degrees in biology, chemistry, geosciences and physics. Today its Biology Department offers bachelor's and master's degrees, including a master's in science education.
While working there full time, Baxter was accepted to the University at Buffalo's Ph.D. program in curriculum, instruction and the science of learning. She began it in 2018 as an Arthur A. Schomburg Fellow. That April she also launched her Raven the Science Maven web series. In September 2019 she moved to Health Sciences Charter School to lead its collegiate STEM initiatives.
Buffalo State's history and profile of Baxter are on its website.
